


Their Fairy Godmother

by DesertVixen



Category: Cinderella (1950)
Genre: Could Be Canon, F/M, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 17:24:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21377785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: What if the Fairy Godmother was helping them both out?
Relationships: Prince Charming/Cinderella (Disney)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 74
Collections: 2019 Disney Animated Movie Exchange (DAM Exchange)





	Their Fairy Godmother

**Author's Note:**

  * For [colorcoded](https://archiveofourown.org/users/colorcoded/gifts).

Sometimes he wished he had been born to another family – a non-royal family, a family where he could have pursued one of the vocations he enjoyed, like books or gardening.

But he had been born a prince, and Charles could not escape his obligations, such as marrying to please his father. 

The problem was that he hated social occasions, all the more when he was surrounded by women who only wanted the luxurious trappings of his life, who wanted to wear fine fabrics and sparkling jewels, who wanted to stand next to the handsome young prince, but who could care less about the man himself. 

The demand from his father that he pick a wife at the next ball, to which every lady of appropriate rank had been invited, was the last straw. He had contemplated running away to a land where they didn’t know him, or escaping into a monastery – but only for a moment. His father might not understand him, but Charles loved him and did not want to embarrass him. 

So he would do his duty and marry, regardless of his feelings. 

However, Charles’ resolve did not stop him from wishing that there was some way to change his situation. 

*** 

The evening before the ball found him walking in his private garden. It was only reachable from his personal library, and its walls sheltered a riot of flowers and shrubs. There was an old hazel tree at the heart of it, with fragrant herbs growing around its base. A riot of rosebushes – red, pink, white, yellow, many grown from cuttings of his deceased mother’s roses – added some extra protection around the walls against intruders. Some of the walkways he had made himself, fitting the bricks and stones together to make intricate patterns and designs, borrowed from forgotten books.

The garden and the library were his refuge, his escape. As he sat on a bench under the hazel tree, Charles wondered if he might actually be able to find a woman at the ball who would appreciate Charles, not Prince Charming.

“Of course you can, my dear.” The soft female voice made him look up, and stare at the older woman in a blue robe, surrounded by sparkles of light. Was he dreaming? Had he fallen asleep on the bench?

“You’re not dreaming,” she said cheerfully, producing a wand from one of her sleeves. “I am your fairy godmother.”

“My fairy godmother?” 

“Your fairy godmother,” she repeated. “I understand you have a problem, and I’m here to help you. What if I could ensure that you would find the perfect woman at the ball? A woman who would not only appreciate you, but would appreciate your library and this garden?”

The idea was like a dream come true, a wish his heart made. He felt like he could trust this woman, as outlandish as the whole thing sounded. “I would be very grateful to you.” 

“Then, this is what you must do.” 

Charles had a moment of panic, wondering if this was the part where she told him she would claim their firstborn son, or set him three impossible tasks, or turn him into some sort of singing woodland animal. 

The fairy godmother merely smiled and continued. “You must find the girl wearing glass slippers.”

*** 

Charles wished she had given him something else to look for. Trying to get a look at every woman’s shoes was becoming a little wearing, not to mention difficult. He had taken the Grand Duke into his confidence, and told him that he only planned to dance with one woman – the woman. Once he found her, the Grand Duke and his faithful servants would see that they were not disturbed.

He was beginning to lose hope when he saw her, a lovely blonde in a gown that reminded him of moonlight, with dainty feet clad in glass slippers.

As they danced, he found himself being drawn to her, being able to relax in her presence. Charles was just about to try and draw her off into the library when the clock struck the first stroke of midnight, and she fled.

There was no other word for it, as she ran down the steps of the castle, not noticing that she left one of her shoes behind. The Grand Duke’s servants tried to stop her, but with no success. It was as if the perfect woman the fairy godmother had promised him had been nothing more than a mirage or a dream.

Yet the shoe was left behind, solid proof that she had existed.

The Grand Duke agreed to search the kingdom to find the young woman, and set out with the glass slipper. Charles wanted to go with him, was reluctant to relinquish his only tie to the woman into the Grand Duke’s capable hands. 

He was afraid he might wake up and discover all of it – the garden, the fairy godmother, the woman, the slipper – had been a dream, and that he still had to survive his father’s ball.

*** 

When the Grand Duke finally returned, he brought with him a young woman who was dressed worse than the castle’s lowest scullery maid. Yet she bore herself with a quiet dignity. 

It was her shy smile that convinced him, that made him realize she was the girl with the moonlight gown and glass slippers.

The Grand Duke handed her off to a group of waiting women, so that she might be given a chance to relax and dress herself in a manner better suited to the palace.

“She will make you a wonderful partner,” the Grand Duke told him. “She was almost missed, you know. Her stepmother had her trapped in an attic room, and broke the slipper. Luckily Eleanor had kept the other slipper.”

Eleanor must be her name, Charles realized. It had never come up in their time at the ball. They hadn’t needed names.

Later, when they had dined with the King, who had given his enthusiastic approval to the marriage, Charles escorted her to his private garden. He knew there was a servant lurking somewhere to ensure they conducted themselves properly, but didn’t concern himself with it as he led her to the hazel tree at the heart of the garden.

“I’m very grateful they found you,” he told Eleanor as they sat together. “But why did you run away like that?”

“I didn’t want to leave, “ she said quietly. “But the magic my fairy godmother cast could only last until midnight.”

“Fairy godmother?”

She blushed. “It sounds fanciful, like a dream, but she was very real.” 

After she told him the whole story, he smiled. “I think I’ve met your fairy godmother – or our fairy godmother, I should say.”

As he told Eleanor his part of the story, he wondered if they would see her again.

He rather hoped so.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I enjoyed your prompts about the prince, and thought turning it on its head would be fun.


End file.
